What a year! 2016 was certainly filled with change, challenge, and opportunity. As winter solstice arrives and we prepare to bring 2016 to a close, it seems like the perfect time to look back on our year and to look forward to the longer days and adventure that awaits in 2017.

As you will see, we already have great things planned to kick off the new year.

Of course, I could not look back on 2016 without mentioning taking on the CEO role, which has been a great opportunity to lead a dedicated team who model purpose every day in our efforts to help women entrepreneurs build successful businesses.

Trying to determine highlights for the year has been quite a challenge - there were so many moments, stories and experiences. When I pulled together these pieces, what emerged was a picture of why we proudly saw Alberta lead Canada in exceeding parity in participation rates of women as early stage business owners and why we are so committed to helping women in our province reach their entrepreneurial dreams.

As we move into 2017, we aim to connect more entrepreneurs into our ever-growing, amazing community of women business owners who contribute so much to Alberta by taking risks, building strong local businesses, innovating new products and processes, role modeling business savviness, supporting other entrepreneurs, moving into new markets, and overall making the world a better place.

We are so thankful to our clients, funders, sponsors, partners, families (pets included, of course), and friends for your valuable support. From our AWE family to yours, we wish you a happy and safe holiday season.